Action Alert! Stop NEPA rollbacks

In early July, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and other federal agencies issued sweeping rollbacks to regulations that implement the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — the bedrock law that ensures decisions impacting public land management are made transparently and with public input. These changes will drastically weaken the NEPA process that communities, scientists, advocates, and the public have relied on for decades.

While the acronym NEPA may or may not mean something to you, you have likely participated in a NEPA process at some point, whether that be submitting a comment on the Jumbo Mountain trail system, oil and gas regulations in the Uncompahgre Resource Management Plan, or the revision of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forest Plan. All of these projects required the public to be heard because of NEPA. And that may be going away. 

What’s at stake?
These proposed rollbacks severely limit the ability of the Forest Service and BLM to assess the environmental and climate impacts of their decisions. Previously, NEPA required agencies to:

• Carefully evaluate how proposed actions would impact the environment,
• Consider indirect effects—like how a project contributes to climate change, and
• Share that information publicly so communities could weigh in.

These regulations allowed our federal agencies to make careful decisions about projects that may have impacts to Paonia’s water system (which originates on BLM and Forest Service lands), nordic skiing on Grand Mesa, and many other landscapes near and dear to the local communities of the North Fork Valley and western slope of Colorado. Those safeguards are in jeopardy. The proposed revision eliminates meaningful public involvement, reduces environmental review to a box-checking exercise, and lets harmful projects move forward without scrutiny or input from the people most affected.

If you care about clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat, or protecting Western Slope public lands from unchecked industrial development—this matters to you. 

What we lose:

• No (or greatly reduced) public comment opportunity for many harmful projects
• Expanded, unchecked use of categorical exclusions 
• No requirement to analyze indirect impacts or long-term consequences

This is a blatant attack on public process, government transparency, and environmental protection. It will make our work—and yours—much harder, and it underscores the urgent need for a strong, unified response.

What you can do:

• Individuals can submit comments by August 4. You can submit comments to the USDA regarding USFS deregulation here and DOI regarding BLM deregulation here.
• Raise your voice on social media, talk to your networks, and help shine a spotlight on this alarming move.

Public lands belong to all of us—not to polluters and extractors seeking to expand corporate profits. Let’s make sure our voices are heard.

Sample comment:

“I urge you to protect the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The proposed changes to your department’s regulations side step public input, necessary transparency, and thorough decision-making. 

NEPA is democracy in action. It guides federal decision-making to ensure that federal agencies fully and accurately consider the impacts of proposed federal projects and that affected communities have a voice in the process. The proposed changes to your department’s NEPA guidelines are clearly intended to benefit corporate polluters at our expense. 

Thorough environmental reviews make federal projects safer and more resilient. They give communities the power to weigh in on decisions impacting their environment. And, they are a critical civil rights tool, giving everyone the right to access safe and healthy air, water and public lands. 

NEPA is not a roadblock. It’s a roadmap to smarter, more efficient and transparent decision-making by the federal government. I urge you to protect public input and ensure a full environmental review process by not gutting your NEPA guidelines.”